Japan : 生け花

En français
Still in Mai, I took some 生け花 (or 華道) classes. It was really nice to sit there with your flowers, listen to the explanation of the teacher on how the flowers should be arranged and then to actually make the composition yourself. I went to those classes three times, every time, the arrangement looked a bit the same as for the positions of the flowers in the plate. But the flower themselves were different and we needed to be careful about the color arrangement and also about the length of the stem. At the end of the classes we were allowed to bring the flowers home, that way I had flowers in my room all month making it very lively. I like flowers.
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Japan : 焼肉

En français 
On the eight of Mai, I went to my first 焼肉 restaurant。 A 焼肉 is a place specialized in meat (肉) which is like an indoor barbecue. You can get different type of meat, for example chicken, port, beef... and from different part of the animal body (even the inside which was hard to get over for some westerners). You order the meat you desire and you grilled it yourself in the center of the table. No to say that we share everything and it's very convivial. And on the top of that it's delicious, even for me with my vegetarian tendencies.
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Japan : 江の島 once again, part 2

En français 
For this trip to 江の島we stay a while near the sea, playing with the waves while trying to get pictures at the moment when they strike the rocky shore the hardest and looking at the eagle. I don't remember seeing so many eagles when I went to 江の島 the first time but this day there were a lot of them flying in circle in the sky, playing with each other and chilling on the rocks. I like eagles.
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Here is a little Native American legend about the eagles :

When the earth was created, a great thundercloud appeared on the horizon. Flashing lightning and thundering it's call, it descended toward the treetops. As the mists cleared, there was an eagle perched on the highest branches. He took flight and flew slowly down to the ground. As he approached the earth, he put forward his foot, and as he stepped upon the ground, he became a man.
For this reason we recognize the eagle as a messenger of the creator, and rely upon him to carry word of our actions to God. When the eagle comes to where we are working, we know that God cares about us and is watching over us.
by D'Arcy Rheault

Japan : Photo expo and 原宿 by night

En français
Last week-end the UEC photography club (photo club of my university) was holding a photo exposition in 原宿, see more details here. So I went there with a friend. It wasn't so easy to find and we were a bit lost walking too far away from the site but we finally made it there. The DESIGN-FESTA GELLERY was presenting art from different universities including ours. The pictures, paintings and drawings were exposed on 3 floors. A small room was designed to show a typical traditional and modern Japanese style bedroom with optical effect art (more on optical effect art here). We then had a early night walk in 原宿's streets eating crepes, the local specialty.
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Japan : 江の島 once again, part 1

En français
Last summer, in August, I already went to visit 江の島, I returned there last Mai with some friends. There was nothing really different to see there except for the flowers and the Eagles. 江の島　is still a very nice place where to spend the day and exercise walking around the island.
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Japan : barbecue in 武蔵野公園

En français
Last Mai we had a barbecue at the 武蔵野公園 near 野川 river. We started in the late morning, ate a lot of meat and took a walk along the river for a bit until it started to rain. There were lots of people there 武蔵野公園 seems to be famous for family barbecue at that time of the year.
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Japan : 調布のよさこいお祭り

En français
Today I went to 調布のよさこいお祭り with my friends.　よさこいお祭り　is a dance festival. First there was a parade with several groups dancing then the event finished at the local Shrine with a dance competition.
Rules for the competition are :
1)Participants must use the 鳴子

2) The music must contain a part of Takemasa's original "Yosakoi Naruko Dancing" song, which contains three elements : "Yosakoi-bushi" the melodie, "Yocchore" a children's song, and "Jinma-mo" a folk song from Kōchi Prefecture.
3) The teams must contain less than 150 members.
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